Walmart had a sale

In that sale there was a roll of foam bedroll for $8. Very useful stuff! I bought a roll and will use it to make a honeycomb to put in my drawers in order to protect my crockery. I prefer real crockery as its easier to get clean than plastic crockery - particularly when its handwashed!

Meanwhile, a tragedy struck a couple of days ago. My old Sonicare toothbrush died. The batteries in them degrade over time until they finally just won't hold a charge. As they're sealed unit batteries, nothing can be done. It's quite frustrating and I really didn't feel like spending $100 on a brand new unit. I liked the small head and the way it really worked.

The problem with the old unit was that the charger ran solely from mains voltage. That would have meant a big battery and an inverter in the bus. I'm not a fan of inverters as they waste power.

Bravo! It seems there's a Sonicare battery operated tooithbrush for $10. I got one. I'd been wondering how I was going to work around my toothbrush needing mains power. It takes two AA rechargeable batteries. Now those can be charged from solar power!

By now you'll have noticed two things. The first is that the sink unit isn't very clean. The second is the water dispenser. Underneath the sink is a bucket - just like the one destined for the bus. Yes, I do live in a low rent place!

Since batteries are expensive, the plan is to make a compartment that will carry two batteries. I might put a single battery just so that I can charge my phone etc overnight. As much as possible will be manual. This will be a low power consumption motorhome.

Thinking capacitors and barrels

I don't have any capacitors in my electrical gubbins box. Doing a little light reading, it seems that I could put a capacitor to charge from my 9v battery then discharge through my electro magnets.

Using my key switch, I have two positions. The first can be used to charge the capacitor and the second to release the charge through the magnets.

As I understand capacitors, they remember the voltage put into them and then build up to capacity with power. The 9v battery trickles power out at a low rate. The capacitor can dump it at a high rate. Thinking of it like a dripping tap, dripping into a bucket, the bucket will fill slowly. Emptying the bucket can be done faster. Indeed a bucket of water filled from a tap is my fail proof method of unlocking a blocked toilet!

So, the new idea is to keep on with the 9v battery but to add a capacitor to dump power into the magnets. I have no idea how much power I'll need so I'll have a look in Radio Shack for their biggest electrolytic capacitor. I gather a diode is recommended in order to protect the capacitor so I'll put one, even though the pp3 battery connector is unidirectional.

It could be that I'm barking up the wrong tree with those magnets. They could be junk but it's worth a shot. It's not an urgent task. Worst case scenario, I just say stuff it and wire the magnets via the bus 12v battery and see what happens. Given an adequate fuse, nothing should be that bad!

Meanwhile, I'm going to look for barrels tomorrow. Word has reached me via the grapevine that somebody locally has a pile of 15 gallon barrels for sale. That's tomorrow's task!